Evanses retire after decades at library
After more than 30 years working with their Rome library family, David and Barbara Evans say they plan to spend more time with family.
For Barbara and David Evans, the last three decades working at the RomeFloyd County Library have been heartfelt and rewarding.
But the couple is celebrating their last day today surrounded by books, me- dia equipment and dear friends as they stroll handin-hand into retirement.
“I love it here,” said Barbara, children’s coordinator for the library, adding that she has worked there for 39 years.
“I started in high school and worked my way through college. I didn’t plan on working here, but I got a library degree and there’s no where else I’d want to work,” she said.
David said he has worked at the library for 32 years after transferring from the library in Warner Robbins for five years prior. However, the Rome- Floyd County Library is especially meaningful to the couple, not only because of the years of service they’ve devoted to it, but especially because it’s where their lives together began.
Barbara remembered how she met David in the early 1980s.
“I was hired with the city library, so I worked for Carnegie, and David was hired at the Tri-County library over the video station,” she said. “Their building was next to us, so I’d see him walk through and I didn’t know who he was. The bookkeeper of his library told him he needed to ask me out and he did. And we married, and it’s so funny because we married and two weeks later the county and city libraries merged. That was in 1983.”
Although they love working at the library, both said that months ago, when they researched into their opportunities and found out they could both retire, they mutually decided it was time.
Barbara said that her work entailed a myriad of responsibilities.
“I ordered all the materials for the department, like books, audiovisual materials, and I cataloged them,” she said. “I had to put all that data into the computers. I supervised all the workers here in the department. We do programs almost every day. I would write puppet shows, perform puppetry, do live drama. In the summertime, I would plan the Summer Reading Program, which is absolutely massive.”
David said he came to Rome in 1980 and worked at the library in the video department for about a decade, then transferred to the reference department for a number of years. During the last three years he has been the head of the video department, filming, editing and broadcasting local events on cable channel four. The last three decades, he said, have been wonderful for him and his wife.
“Our lives have pretty much revolved around the library,” David said. “When we leave here and go home, the library is still kind of with you. We’ll be at home at the table talking shop. Library-related stuff. It’s been in our lives for a long time.”
He said working alongside the different
Barbara Evans characters at the library has made it an even more impactful experience.
“When you work at the library, you meet all kinds of people,” David said, “people with different personalities and what not. There’s never a dull moment. Even working in the video department, you meet unique individuals, and they make it interesting. I’ve had the opportunity in years past to have interns working with us, and being able to see them learn in the video area and then go elsewhere… it’s been rewarding to see that.”
For Barbara, her greatest reward as children’s coordinator has been seeing how children become enveloped in the magic of a book.
“When I see that child capture the joy of reading, that has been the highlight of the job.”
But after today, the couple plans to spend quality time with family and friends.
“Our daughter married last year and lives in Livingston, Ala.,” she said. “We will be visiting her, visiting and taking care of parents, working at the house, in the yard, and I guess I’m going to have to learn how to say no because every club in town is trying to get me to join,” she finished, laughing.
At the end of the day, both Barbara and David said the last three decades have been the absolute best and they wouldn’t change a thing.
“I’ve grown up here,” said Barbara. “I started here in high school when I was quiet and somewhat shy but I love my job. I’ve worked, married and had babies. We’ve been here forever,” she said, gesturing to her husband. “The library staff is definitely our family. I tell everybody, it doesn’t matter how much the job would pay, there is nowhere else in the world I’d rather work. We love it.”